Black Rose

CHAPTER 6

The view from Selena's twelfth floor Washington condo reached across the Potomac to the rolling hills of Virginia and beyond. On a clear day, you could see the Appalachians in the distance. You got a lot of view for the kind of money Selena had paid for it. It never failed to impress Nick each time he saw it. Today everything was obscured by gray haze and snow beginning to fall from a threatening sky.

The remains of breakfast were scattered across the counter. Selena wasn't much of a cook but she could handle bacon and eggs. Nick picked up the plates and rinsed them in the sink before placing them in the stainless steel dishwasher under the counter. He looked at his watch.

"I need to get back to my place and get some fresh clothes before the morning brief," he said.

"If you lived here, you wouldn't have to do that," she said.

"It's a little early in the day for this discussion. It's not like we haven't had it before."

"We have, and it never gets resolved. We're engaged. We sleep together. We work together. Why aren't we living together?"

"Because we both like our own space?"

"You know it's not that simple."

"No, I guess not." He picked up his coffee cup and drained it. "As a matter of fact, I've been thinking about it."

"You have?"

"My apartment is too small, right?"

Selena nodded.

"This place of yours is beautiful," he said, "but it feels like yours, not mine or ours. Just like mine feels like that to you. Why don't we look for a new place, something different we could pick together?"

"A new place? But what about this one?"

"You could sell it. Or keep it as an investment."

She looked at him.

He glanced at his watch again. "I have to go. Think about it." He leaned over and kissed her. "Hey," he said. "It could be fun."

She watched the door close behind him.

It could be fun.

Sure. Why did men seem to think that disrupting everything was fun? She'd finally gotten everything the way she wanted it in the condo. Everything was perfect and now he wanted her to give it up.

Living together had been an issue since the beginning, once they realized they were caught up in something more than an affair. It had taken a lot of ups and downs just to get to this point, where he'd put the ring on her finger. They still hadn't set a date for the wedding. The whole relationship had been like that.

Then there was the issue of her money. She had a lot of it, more than most people would ever see, more than Nick could ever hope to earn or equal. He didn't say much about it, but she knew it was one of the things that came between them. Nick wasn't the kind of person who would let someone else pay his way. This condo alone had cost more than he'd likely make in a lifetime. She'd simply written a check for it to the agent.

Sometimes she wished he'd just let her take care of the money. Then again, if he was a man who was willing to be kept by her, he wouldn't be someone she wanted to keep.

She looked at the clock on the kitchen counter. She needed to take a shower and get dressed and head out to Virginia. She got up and felt a sharp pain in her lower back, right where a bullet had almost left her in a wheelchair for life. Every once in a while her body let her know that she was mortal and getting older. Lately the message had been coming through more often.

You should have taken up something safe, like making documentaries about sharks or jumping off skyscrapers, she thought. At least sharks don't shoot at you.

She had to hurry or she'd be late.